Tanabata Festival
Traditional Chinese festivals
China's most romantic traditional festival
Qixi Festival, a traditional Chinese festival, also known as Qiqiao Festival, Seven Sisters Festival, Daughter's Festival, Beggar Festival, Qinianghui, Qixi Festival, Bull And Bull Po Day, Qiaoxi, etc., is a traditional festival of Chinese folk. The Tanabata Festival is derived from the worship of the stars, which is the birthday of the seven sisters in the traditional sense, because the worship of the "seven sisters" is held on the seven evenings of July, so it is called "Tanabata". Worshiping the Seven Sisters, praying for blessings and making wishes, begging for craftsmanship, sitting and watching the morning glory Vega, praying for marriage, storing Tanabata water, etc., are the traditional customs of Tanabata. After historical development, Qixi has been endowed with the beautiful love legend of "Cowherd Weaver Girl", making it a festival symbolizing love, which is considered to be the most romantic traditional festival in China, and in contemporary times, it has produced the cultural meaning of "Chinese Valentine's Day".
Tanabata Festival is not only a festival to worship the seven sisters, but also a festival of love, is a comprehensive festival with the folklore of "cowherd weaver girl" as the carrier, with blessings, beggars and love as the theme, and women as the main body. Tanabata's "cowherd weaver girl" comes from people's worship of natural celestial phenomena, and in ancient times, people corresponded to astronomical star areas and geographical areas, and this correspondence was called "division star" in terms of astronomy, and "division field" in terms of geography. Legend has it that every year on the seventh day of July, the cowherd weaver girl will meet at the Queqiao Bridge in the sky.
The Qixi Festival began in the Western Han Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty. In ancient times, the Tanabata Festival was an exclusive festival for beautiful women. Among the many folk customs of Tanabata, some of them have gradually disappeared, but a considerable part of them have been continued by people. The Tanabata Festival originated in China, and there are also traditions of celebrating Tanabata in some Asian countries influenced by Chinese culture, such as Japan, the Korean Peninsula, and Vietnam. On May 20, 2006, the Qixi Festival was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list by the State Council of the People's Republic of China. In 2007, the "Qixi Tribute Case" was listed on the list of intangible cultural heritage protection in Guangdong Province. In 2014, the Yunxi Qixi Festival was selected as the fourth batch of national intangible cultural heritage projects.
Basic information
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Chinese name
Foreign name
Double Seventh Festival
alias
Tangram Festival
Double Seven
Beggars Day
Seventh sister's birthday
Festive time
The seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh lunar month
Popular regions
China and the countries of the Chinese character cultural circle
Folklore festival type
Traditional festivals
Customs and activities
Worship the Weaver Girl
Store Tanabata water
Eat the fruit
Begging for marriage
Lunar calendar dates
The first seven days of July
significance
Inherit and carry forward traditional Chinese culture
Festive diet
Fruit, crisp sugar
Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Unit
Ministry of Culture and Tourism
Origin event
Natural Celestial Worship, Seventh Sister's Birthday (Seventh Mother's Birthday)
<h1 class="pgc-h-center-line" > Tanabata Festival Historical Origin Festival Origin Festival Festival Nickname Introduction! </h1>
Folk customs Qixi begging for marriage travel Seven sisters water worship seven niang mother seed life to ask for children storage Tanabata water for cattle Qingsheng drying books to dry clothes worship weaver girl worship Kuixing seven sisters birthday incense bridge will welcome immortal dye nails listen to whisper knot red head rope women shampoo and tie Qiaogu play grinding and drinking!
The traditional customs of the Tanabata Festival
Needle begging
Wearing needles and begging is a custom in China. It is held every year on the seventh day of July. On the night of Tanabata, a woman holding a five-colored silk thread and a continuous arrangement of nine-hole needles (or five-hole needles, seven-hole needles) takes advantage of the moonlight to continuously thread the needles and leads the moon, and the person who quickly passes through all the threads is called "deqiao". It shows the wisdom and ingenuity and life aspirations of the working people in ancient China.
Bye Que Star
Worship of Kuixing is an ancient Chinese folk custom and folk belief activity. July 7 is the birthday of KuiXing, and Chinese folk call it "Kuixing's main literary affair". Readers around the eastern Fujian region have a custom of "worshiping kuixing" on the "Tanabata" and pray for their own luck and prosperity. Kui Star is the first star of the Big Dipper. In ancient times, when the emperor was called "The Great Que Tianxia Corporal" or "Won the Championship in One Fell swoop", it was because the KuiXing was in charge of the examination luck. The ceremony of "worshiping KuiXing" is also held in the moonlight, in the area of eastern Fujian, "Qixi" this night, the patio is often placed "Worship Weaver Girl", "Worship Kui Star" two incense cases, ladies gather together, and are divided into two small worlds with relatively different genders, which are very lively and interesting.
Happy spider should be coincidental
It is customary to like spiders. Tanabata is an earlier way of begging, which is slightly later than begging with needles.
Cowherd Weaver Girl Astrology
Ancient Chinese astrological culture has a long history and profound depth, and the ancients have explored the mysteries of the universe from a very early age, and thus deduced a complete and profound stargazing culture, "Cowherd Weaver Girl" is a typical example. The legend of the cowherd weaver girl of Tanabata originated from people's worship of natural celestial phenomena, as early as ancient times, the ancient people who pursued order not only planned the sky in an orderly manner, but also corresponded to the stars and the ground area one by one, and this correspondence was called "star" in terms of astronomy, and as far as the ground was concerned, it was called "division". To put it simply, the ancients corresponded each constellation in the sky to the physical geographical area on the earth, and the purpose of the ancient division of stars and fields was mainly to cooperate with astrological theory for astronomical astrology. In the ancient astrological system, the "cow lodge" consisted of 6 stars, located on the east bank of the Milky Way, like two inverted triangles, one up and one down, very characteristic, but the triangle above was larger and brighter. The small triangle below is located exactly on the ecliptic, and these stars form a cow with two horns on its head but only three legs, so the ancients called it "morning glory". To the south of this "cow" there are 9 small stars, forming the "Tiantian", which is where it cultivates, and then looking south, near the southern horizon, is the "Nine Kans" 9 stars, which is a lowland for storing water and is used to irrigate farmland. Immediately to the east of Niusu is the 3 stars of "Luoyan", which is a water conservancy facility similar to a reservoir. "Vega" 3 stars are located in the north of Niusu, of which "Vega I" star is the fifth brightest star in the whole day, second only to the "BigHorn" star, so it is often directly called "Vega Star". The ancients referred to the "Cow Star" and the "Vega Star" as the "Cowherd Weaver Girl".
The worship of natural celestial phenomena of cowherd weavers has a long history, dating back to ancient times. "Spring and Autumn Destiny Calendar": "The heavens and the earth are opened, all things are muddy, ignorant and ignorant; yin and yang rely on ... The sun and the moon and the five latitudes are all morning glory; forty-five thousand years, the sun and the moon are rotated in one turn; ... The image of the heavens, the instrument of the law and the earth, is used as a stem branch to set the day and the month. "The Book of Han and the Law chronicle": "It refers to the beginning of the morning glory, with the era of the sun and the moon, so it is called the star era; the five stars begin at the beginning, and the sun and the moon begin in it." "Sayings": "Things, all things; the ox is a great thing; the number of heavens and earth begins with the morning glory; therefore from the ox, do not make a sound." "Corpse": "Heaven left Shu rises up morning glory, and the right side of the earth rises up Bi Pleiades." The Book of Heavenly Officials [Justice]: "Nandou, Morning Glory, and SuNu are all Xingji, Yuchen is ugly, Yue is divided, and bullfighting is Wu's division." Book 61 of the Kaiyuan Zhanjing quotes Shi Shi as saying: "Morning Glory was born in the yi of Lieze, and crossed the kingdom with the Lord." Case: The Morning Glory Star is the dividing star of the land of Wuyue. The specific geographical divisions on the ground corresponding to the astronomical starry sky area of the "Cowherd Weaver Girl" can be found in the Han Dynasty document "Book of Han geography": "Guangdong (Yue) land, the division of morning glory (cow lang) and Wunu (weaver girl), the present Cangwu, Yulin, Hepu, Jiaotong, Jiuzhen, Nanhai, and Nichinan are all Cantonese and also"
The original meaning of "Morning Glory Lady" was the "star" used in Guangdong (Yue) as the corresponding geographical division of the astronomical star area. After historical development and evolution, the morning glory goddess celestial astrology has been given a personified legend of the beauty of the cowherd weaver girl (the third volume of "Nian Hua Ji Li" quotes Han Yingshao's "Customs and Customs" text: "The Weaver Girl Qixi Should Cross the River, Make the Magpie a Bridge"), as well as the rich humanistic connotations of women begging for wisdom and ingenuity to the Vega star, praying for marriage, meeting lovers, exchanging female red, worshiping the Weaver Girl, etc. The formation of Tanabata customs is closely related to the "legend of the cowherd weaver girl", and the most widely spread and longest-lasting qixi customs is "begging", and the ancients attached great importance to the annual begging customs. Tanabata night to sit and watch the morning glory Vega, is also a folk tradition, on the night of Tanabata, young girls and women should put on the seasonal fruits prepared in advance, facing the bright moon, worship to the sky; they also hold a variety of begging ceremonies, prayerfully begging the goddess of weaving to give them clever hands, praying that they can get a happy and loving marriage match.
Tanabata
Time number worship
"Tanabata" is every seventh day of the month and seven days of the day. In ancient times, the ancients combined the sun and the moon with the five planets of water, fire, wood, gold and earth as "Seven Yao". "Shang Shu Kao Lingyao": "(The opening of heaven and earth), the seven yao are in the beginning of the morning glory". "Yi Wei Tong Gua Guan Supplement": "The Emperor's First, and Qian Yao Hede". Case: This statement says that the ancestors of the Emperor clan are in harmony with the sun, moon, and five stars (seven clouds), that is, their status is extremely lofty. "Yi Chuan": "The sun, the moon, and the five stars, from the morning glory." "Hanshu Astronomical Chronicle": "Morning glory, the beginning of the sun, the moon, and the five stars, the yuan of the calendar, and the beginning of the three positives." ”
The "first seven days of July" is related to the ancient people's worship of numbers and time. Ancient folk listed the "seven folds" of the first lunar month, February 2, March 3, May 5, June 6, July 7, and September 9 as auspicious days. In ancient China, the "heavy day" was considered to be a day of "heaven and earth sympathy" and "heaven and man communicating". In these "heavy days", it is not difficult to see the ancient people's worship of numbers, such as nine and five are important numbers, and the ninth five supreme is a symbol of status. And "one" is the beginning of all things, a symbol of achievement, status and honor.
"Seven" is the number of beads in each column of the abacus, romantic and rigorous, giving people a mysterious beauty. "Seven" is manifested as a stage of time in the folk, and often ends with "seven seven" when calculating time. The current "week" is calculated in terms of "Seven Yao", which is still reserved in Japanese. In Taiwan, July is known as the "Happy In The Year of Luck". "Seven" and "auspicious" are harmonized, and "seven seven" also has the meaning of double auspiciousness, which is an auspicious day. Because the shape of the word xi in cursive is like the continuous writing of "seventy-seven", seventy-seven years old is also called "xishou".
Allusions: Legend has it that a long time ago, there was an orphan who lived with his brother-in-law, who was both smart and diligent, but his sister-in-law still disliked him, and when it was not dawn, he drove him up the mountain to herd cattle, and everyone called him Niulang. A few years later, the brother-in-law and the cowherd separated the family, and the cruel sister-in-law only gave him a broken hut and an old cow. Since then, The cowherd has herded cattle and cut firewood during the day, and slept with the old cow in the broken hut at night. One day, Niu Lang drove the cattle into a strange wood, where the mountains and rivers were beautiful and the birds were singing. Niu Lang saw nine fairies driving the auspicious clouds to the grass by the river, and then took off the colorful neon clothes and jumped into the crystal clear river, Niu Lang stared at the youngest and most beautiful fairy and looked into the gods, when the old cow suddenly spoke: "She is the weaver girl in the sky, as long as she takes the colorful neon clothes, she will be your wife." The cowherd quietly followed the bushes and quietly took away the weaver girl's multicolored neon dress. It was nearly noon, and the other fairies put on colorful neon dresses and drove away with the auspicious clouds. Only the weaver girl who could not find the multicolored neon dress remained. At this time, the cowherd came out from behind the tree and asked the weaver girl to be his wife. The Weaver Girl saw that Niu Lang was loyal and honest, industrious and strong, and nodded shyly. After the cowherd weaver girl married, the male cultivator and the female weaver, respecting and loving each other. Two years later, weaver girls gave birth to a man and a woman. However, when the Heavenly Emperor heard that the Weaver Girl was marrying into the human world, he was furious. On the seventh day of the first month of July, the Queen Mother was ordered to capture the Weaver Girl with the Heavenly Soldier Heavenly General. With the help of the old cow, the grief-stricken cowherd carried his children to the sky with a basket. Seeing that she had caught up, the Queen Mother pulled down the golden hairpin and swiped it, and a mighty heavenly river immediately appeared at niu lang's feet. The weaver girl with a broken liver and intestines and the cowherd who shouldered the children, one in the east of the river and the other in the west of the river, looked at each other and wept. The cry touched the magpies, and in a flash countless magpies flew to the Tianhe River and built a magpie bridge, and the cowherd weaver girl could finally meet on the magpie bridge. The Queen Mother had no choice but to allow the cowherd weaver girl to meet once a year on the bridge on the seventh day of the first month of July.
Women beg
Gregorian calendar
During the Han Dynasty, Qixi was endowed with the humanistic connotation of women begging for wisdom and ingenuity from Vega, forming the custom of Qixi begging, so it was also called "begging". For example, Ge Hong's "Miscellaneous Records of Xijing" of the Eastern Jin Dynasty has a record that "Han cai women often wear seven hole needles in the cardigan building on the seventh day of July, and everyone is accustomed to it", which is the earliest record of begging seen in ancient documents. Therefore, the first seven days of July are also known as the Beggar's Day.
Folklore says that on the night of Tanabata every year, it is the time when the heavenly weaver girl Cowherd Queqiao meets, and the weaver girl is a beautiful, intelligent, and skillful fairy. On this night, the girls face the bright moon in the sky, put seasonal melon fruits, worship the sky, beg the goddess of heaven to give them a clever heart and dexterous hands, make their knitting female red skills skillful, and beg for the marriage of love marriage.
Fertility worship
"Seven sevens" is the life cycle. "The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, Su Qing, ancient naïve theory": "Men are only eight or eight, women are not exhausted, and the essence of heaven and earth is exhausted." "It says men cycle at 8 years and women in 7 years. The woman is 7 years old and has a strong kidney, changes her teeth and becomes longer and her hair becomes longer; in two or seven days, she has a pulse. Tiandi is a kidney essence, Ren Dou Ermai, in Chinese medicine, "for a body of yin and yang sea, five qi Zhenyuan", that is, two seven will come to menstruation, can have children. The qi of the three seven kidneys is average, and the last teeth are long and fully mature. Four or seven strong bones, long hair, strong body, to the peak. Wuqi Yang's veins faded, his face began to burn yellow, and his hair began to fall out. Liu Qi," "The three yang veins decline on the top, the faces are scorched, and the beginning is white." Seven seven "Ren pulse is weak, too Chong pulse decline, heaven is exhausted, the tunnel is not clear, so the shape is bad and childless", is the end of a life cycle.
The number "seven" also refers to the West, so the encounter of seven seven should be the birth in the end. "Zhou Yi Fu Gua": "Repeat its way, seven days to come and go, Tianxing also." Kong Yingda Shuo: "After the extinction of the Yang Qi of Heaven, but the Yang Qi of the Seven Days is reborn, this is the natural principle of Heaven, so it is called Tianxing." "Coming and going" is to go and come back, that is, to be reborn, to cycle back and forth, so that the soul of seven days and forty-nine days is scattered, and the soul of seven days and forty-nine days is full.
Festivals are also known as
Cowherd Weaver Girl
Double Seven: This day, month, and day are all seven, so it is called, also weighed seven. Incense Day: It is said that tanabata cowgirls meet, and the weaver girls should dress up, grease and powder, so that the sky is full of incense, so it is called.
Week: The two stars of the cowherd weaver girl are located in a special position, and they can only meet once a year, so this day is called the week.
QiaoXi: Because Tanabata has the custom of begging, it is called.
Women's Day: The Tanabata Festival takes the worship of fairy maidens and beggars and saiqiao as the main festivals, so it is called women's day, also known as daughter's day, maiden's day. As a pair of lovers of "Queqiao Meeting", the love story interpreted on them for thousands of years has deeply touched the hearts of generations of people; therefore, the Tanabata Festival is also a festival for thousands of daughters and girls to pin their love dreams and desire to be with their lovers, so it is also called "Daughter's Day" and "Girl's Day".
Lan Ye: The seventh month of the lunar calendar was called "Lan Yue" in ancient times, so Tanabata is also called "Lan Ye".
Cow Bull Po Day: In Vietnam, the main body of celebration of Tanabata is Chinese, and Tanabata has a nickname called "Cow Bull Po Day".
Children's Day: Because the customs such as begging and begging are mostly made by girls and children, they are called.
Needle piercing festival: Because there is a custom of threading needles on this day, it is called.
Daodela: The Taoist "Emperor to Dao Taiqing Jade Book" says: July 7, the name Ofe-la, on this day the five emperors will be in the Western Seven Heavens.
Folk customs
Tanabata beggars
Tanabata beggars, the "Bu Qiao" method for judging the cunning of the beggars, mainly includes several forms such as "wearing needles and begging", "spiders should be clever", "needles for the moon", "Lan Ye Dou Qiao" and "needle casting and testing".
• Needle-piercing beggars
Needle begging is the earliest form of begging in extant literature, which began in the Han Dynasty and flowed to later generations. The "Miscellaneous Records of Xijing" says: "Hancai women often wear seven-hole needles in the cardigan building on the seventh day of July, and people are accustomed to it. "Needle begging", also called "Sai Qiao", that is, women's competition needles, they tie color thread, wear seven hole needles, who wear faster, means who begs more skillfully, wear slowly called "losing qiao", "losing qiao" people to give the gift prepared in advance to the clever.
The Southern Dynasty Liang Zongmou's "Records of the Jingchu Years" says: "On the seventh day of July, it was the women of the Xi family who pierced the seven holes outside the building, or used gold and silver discovery stones as needles. The Chronicle of Youdi said: "Emperor Qiwu raised the city view, and on the seventh day of July, the palace people put up a needle. It is known as the needle building. ”
The Five Dynasties Wang Renyu's "Testament of Kaiyuan Tianbao" said: "On tanabata, the palace is made of brocade into a hall, which is one hundred feet high, and can win dozens of people on the top, Chen is burned with melon and fruit wine, and seats are set up, and the two stars of the cattle girl are used, and the concubines each wear it with nine holes and five colored threads to the moon. Moving the song of the Qing Shang, feasting on Da Dan. The native people's houses are all effective. ”
Yuan Tao Zongyi's "Records of the Yuan Dynasty" said: "Nine introduction platforms, the place of Qixi begging." At the end of the night, the palace maid took the stage to wear nine tail needles with multicolored silk, and the first to finish was a coincidence, and the late finisher was called a clever loss, and each fund was given to the clever. ”
• Needles for the moon
"Needle to the moon" means that on the evening of the seventh day of the first month of July, every household cleans the courtyard, and young women and girls first bow down to the Vega star and beg the Weaver Girl to bless her soul. Then, they took out the multicolored silk threads and seven silver needles prepared in advance, and threaded the needles for the moon, and whoever finished the seven needles first indicated that she could become a skillful woman in the future.
• Spider-friendly
Spiders are also an earlier way of begging, and their custom is slightly later than that of needle begging, roughly from the time of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. The Southern Dynasty Liang Zongyi's Records of the Jing Chu Dynasty says: "It is the night, Chen Guaguo begs in the court. There is a happy subnet on the melon to think that it should be a sign. ”
The Five Dynasties Wang Renyu's "Testament of Kaiyuan Tianbao" said: "On the seventh day of July, each one caught spiders in a small locket until xiao kai; The secret ones speak more skillfully, and the rare ones speak less skillfully. Folk also do the same."
The Song Dynasty Meng Yuanlao's "Tokyo Dream Record" said that the July Tanabata "with a small spider Inside the Hezi, the next day to see it, if the net is round is said to be a coincidence." ”
Song Zhoumi's "Chronicle of the Qianchun Dynasty" says: "How long is it to take a small spider to store it inside, and to wait for the denseness of the web to be a coincidence."
Mingtian Rucheng's "Xi Dynasty Pleasures" says that Tanabata "holds spiders in small boxes, and the next morning they think that their webs are dense and dense." ”
It can be seen from this that the methods of testing ingenuity in successive dynasties are different, and the existence of the southern and northern dynasties' visual networks, the density of the Tang's networks, and the roundness of the Song's networks are correct, and later generations mostly follow the Tang customs.
• Needle casting
Needle testing is one of the traditional customs of the Tanabata Festival, which prevailed in the Ming and Qing dynasties. By putting the embroidery needle into the container that forms the water film, see if it can float and form a pattern at the bottom of the container, in order to test the wisdom and ingenuity, also known as "floating needle test" and "throwing needle". This is a variation of the custom of qixi needle begging, which originates from the needle, and is different from the needle, which is the prevailing Qixi festival custom in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
Ming Liu Tong and Yu Yizheng's "Imperial Scenery and Material Strategy" said: "The needle was lost at noon on the seventh day of July. Women are exposed to the water in the middle of the day, it is, the water film is raw, the embroidery needle is floating, and the shadow of the needle under the water is seen. There are clouds of flowers, birds and beasts, and there are shoes and scissors, which are called beggars; their shadows are as thick as hammers, as thin as silk, and as straight as shaft wax. The Zhili Zhishu also says that Liangxiang County (present-day southwest of Beijing) "On the seventh day of July, women begged for skill, threw needles into the water, borrowed the shadow of the sun to examine the clumsiness of the work, and begged the weaver girl at night."
Qing Yu Minzhong's "Old Wen Kao under the Sun" quotes the "Miscellaneous Records of Wanju" as saying: "On the seventh day of July, the Yandu woman stormed the sun with a bowl of water, and each of them threw small needles to float on the surface of the water, and Xu looked at the shadow of the sun under the water. Or scattered like a flower, moving like a cloud, thin as a line, coarse rent like a cone, because of the ingenuity of the woman. ”
Begging activities in the Jiangsu area are to take a bowl of clean water and expose it to the sun and spend the night in the open air. That is, picking up a fine grass stick and floating in the water, depending on its shadow to determine the clumsiness. There are also many young women who use small needles to see the shadow of needles under the water to fulfill the wisdom and stupidity.
• Lan Night Fighting
Lan Ye Dou Qiao is a kind of game. July used to be called "Lan Yue", and the night of the seventh day of July, the Tanabata, was also called Lan Night. The multicolored threads are knotted together, which is called "mutual pity and love". The women went to the closed floor together, and everyone learned to wear tangram needles and beg.
Worship the Weaver Girl and pray for blessings
On a clear summer and autumn night, the stars in the sky shine, a Milky Way runs across the north and south, and on both sides of the East and West banks of the Milky Way, there is a shining star, looking across the river, far away, that is, Altair and Vega. Countless sentient men and women in the world will pray for a happy marriage in the starry sky on this night, the night is quiet.
The love story of Cowherd and Weaver Girl is well-known in China, and their steadfastness and faithfulness to love are touching, so the Tanabata Festival is full of romantic atmosphere. On this day, women will pray for their true love, so some customs about women begging on this day are born accordingly.
Although the Chinese Qixi Festival was born much earlier than western Valentine's Day and has been passed down in folklore for a long time, at present, among young people, the Qixi Festival is not as popular as Western Valentine's Day. Folklore experts said that compared with the foreign festival, traditional festivals such as Tanabata have more potential to be tapped in terms of culture and connotation, and if fashion elements such as romance, warmth and entertainment are implanted into traditional festivals, traditional festivals can be more exciting.
Swim seven sisters water
Folklore says that the seven fairies in the sky of the Tanabata Festival will go down to the river to bathe, and at this time, the river water is stained with fairy qi, and people will not only bring peach blossom luck when they wash it, but also prevent diseases. In Guangxi Baise, Jingxi and other folk believe that the water on the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh month of the lunar calendar is very holy and clean, and the water of Qixi can not only drive away evil spirits and avoid diseases, but also make them happy in love and live happily. This custom is related to the legend of the local seven fairies bathing in the lower part of the body.
Worship The Seventh Mother
The Tanabata Festival in southern Fujian and Taiwan is also the birthday of the "Seven Niangma". Folk worship is very popular to worship the seven mothers, which is an idol that protects the safety and health of children. According to the book "Minnan People" by Lin Zaifu, a scholar from Southern Fujian, most of the people in southern Fujian crossed the gorge and crossed the ocean to Taiwan or to other countries to do business and make a living in other countries for many years, and women had to pin all their hopes on their children, and only with hope did they have the courage to live. Therefore, the festival of Tanabata has evolved into a prayer for the "Seven Mothers" god who protects children.
On this day every year, people go to the Seven Niangma Temple in groups of three or five to offer flowers and fruits, fat powder, animal sacrifices, etc. On this day, Taiwanese folk also popular a kind of "coming of age", that is, when the child reaches the age of 15, his parents lead him to the Seven Niang Ma temple with offerings to thank him, thanking the "Seven Niang Ma" for protecting the child through infancy, childhood and adolescence. On this day, the Tainan area is required to "do sixteen years old" for 16-year-old children and perform a coming-of-age ceremony. People in Taiwan believe that children are raised before the age of 16 by the care of the celestial fairy bird, the mother bird. The mother of the bird is entrusted by the seventh mother, so the seventh mother has become the protector of underage children. After the baby is born to the age of one year, the pious mother or grandmother will hold the child, bring a rich offering, add chicken crown flowers and thousand day red, go to the temple to worship, pray for the seven mothers to protect the child's safe growth, and use ancient money or lock cards to string red envelope velvet thread, tie it around the neck, wear it until the age of 16, only to take the lock card on the day of the Tanabata Festival, and go to the temple to thank the seven mothers for their blessings for many years.
In addition to thanking the "Seven Mothers" on the day of the Tanabata Festival, some parents also specially invite relatives and friends to celebrate the coming-of-age ceremony for their children. Although the folk Tanabata in southern Fujian and Taiwan is not very heavy on begging, it attaches great importance to health food customs. On the occasion of Tanabata, almost every household has to buy Chinese medicine to make gentlemen and pomegranates.
Sowing and asking for children
In the old days before Tanabata, a layer of soil was applied to a small wooden board, and the seeds of corn were sown to give birth to green seedlings. Or soak mung beans, adzuki beans, wheat, etc. in a magnetic bowl, wait for it to grow sprouts, and then tie a bunch of red and blue silk ropes into a bunch, called "planting", in order to seek seeds. Also known as "bubble buds" in the south, the bean sprouts that grow out are called smart buds, and even replace the needle with the sprouts and throw them on the surface of the water to beg. Various figures, such as cowboys and weaver girls, or the shapes of vultures, mandarin ducks, and other animals, are also used to float on the water, which is called "floating on the water". There are also wax baby dolls, which women buy home and float in the water and soil, thinking that it is the auspiciousness of the yizi, called "metamorphosis".
"Tanabata Water", also known as "Seven Waters of July", is said to have a magical function, long-term storage, can treat burns, remove sores and so on. There is a custom of storing "Qixi water" in Guangdong, that is, after the first chicken chirping in the morning of the seventh day of the first month, each family goes to the well or river to draw water for storage. In some places in Guangxi, there is the custom of storing water on Qixi, folklore, on the morning of July 7, fairies should take a bath, and use their bath water to avoid evil and cure diseases and prolong life; therefore, people have to go to the river to get water in the morning of Qixi, take it back and use it in a new urn for later use.
Celebrate the birthday of the cow
In the old days, children would pick wildflowers on tanabata and hang them on the horns, also known as "celebrating the birthday of the cow". Because legend has it that after the Queen Mother of the West used the Tianhe River to separate the weaver girl, the old cow let the cowherd cross the Tianhe River to see the weaver girl, let the cowherd cut off its skin, and drove its cowhide to meet the weaver girl. In order to commemorate the sacrifice spirit of the old cow, people have the custom of "celebrating the birthday of the cow".
Drying books and clothes
It is reported that Sima Yi was quite suspicious of Cao Cao because of his high power, and in view of the darkness of the politics at that time, in order to protect himself, he pretended to be crazy and hid at home. Emperor Weiwu was still not very reassured, so he sent a close confidant, Ling Shi, to secretly investigate the truth. It was July 7, and Sima Yi, who was pretending to be crazy, was also drying books at home. Ling Shi went back to report to Emperor Wu of Wei, who immediately ordered Sima Yi to return to his post, or else he could be taken into custody. Sima Yi obediently obeyed the order to return to the dynasty.
Volume 25 of Liu Yiqing's "New Languages of the World" says that on July 7, everyone was drying books, only Hao Long ran to lie down in the sun, and when people asked him why, he replied: "I dry books." On the one hand, this is to despise the custom of drying books, and on the other hand, it is also to boast of the talents in one's belly. Drying your belly is also drying books.
The custom of drying clothes in the Han Dynasty created opportunities for the rich to boast of their wealth during the Wei and Jin dynasties. Ruan Xian, who is listed as the "Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest", looks down on this style. On July 7, when his neighbor was drying his clothes, he saw that the shelves were full of silk and satin, dazzling. And Ruan Xian did not hurry to pick up a worn-out dress with a bamboo pole, and someone asked him what he was doing, and he said: "I can't avoid the vulgarity, talk about Fu Er'er!" Judging from these few small stories, we know how prosperous the custom of tanabata books and clothes was at that time.
"Worshiping the Weaver Girl" is purely a matter for young girls and young women. Most of them make appointments with their friends or neighbors in advance, as many as a dozen people, and hold joint organizations. The ceremony was held by setting up a table in the moonlight, on which tea, wine, fruits, and five seeds (guiyuan, red dates, hazelnuts, peanuts, melon seeds) and other offerings were placed; there were several flowers, bunches of red paper, bottles, and a small incense burner in front of the flowers.
The young women and maidens who made an appointment to participate in the worship of the Weaver Girl, fasted for a day, bathed and stopped, and came to the host's house on time, and after burning incense before the case, everyone sat around the table together, eating peanuts and melon seeds, while facing the Vega constellation, silently reciting their hearts. For example, if the girls want to look beautiful or marry a ruyilang, the young women want to give birth to a noble son early, etc., they can pray to the Vega star silently. Play until midnight.
Kuixing, the name of the ancient Chinese stars, is said in ancient Chinese mythology to dominate the rise and fall of the article, in the minds of ancient scholars, Kuixing has a supreme position. Later, with the imperial examination system, Zhongzhuangyuan was called "Great Kui Tianshi", and readers called Tanabata "Kuixing Festival", also known as "Book Festival". Legend has it that The seventh of July is the birthday of The Star of Quixote. Kuixing literary affairs, readers who want to seek meritorious names especially revere Kuixing, so they must worship on the day of Tanabata and pray to him to bless him with good luck. In ancient times, when the emperor was called "The Great Que Tianxia Corporal" or "Won the Championship in One Fell swoop", it was because the KuiXing was in charge of the examination luck.
Bye Seventh Sister
On the seventh day of July, the Seven Ladies' Meeting, known in Guangdong as "Worshiping the Seven Sisters", organized everyone to gather at the Clan Township Hall, laying down all kinds of bright incense cases, offering sacrifices to the weaver girls of the cowherd, and the "incense cases" were filled with flowers, fruits, rouge powder, paper small flower clothes, shoes, daily necessities and embroidery. The Seven Sisters Association in different regions worked the incense case, compared to the high, to see whose production was exquisite. Incense cases are generally prepared on the seventh day of the first month of July, and in the evening they begin to beg the Weaver Girl.
Dongguan Qixi Worship Seven Sisters", the folk tradition of praying for the seven sisters, the ceremony includes tribute, clean hands, incense, worship and other links.
Married women are generally not allowed to participate in the Worship of Immortals in Guangzhou, but newlywed brides must hold a "resignation" ceremony when they have the first Tanabata. That is, on the night of the sixth day of the first year, in addition to the animal liquor, red eggs, sour ginger, etc. (take the zhaodezi), it is also necessary to add sydney pear or sand pear, indicating the meaning of parting with the girl's day. According to the seventeenth volume of the "Guangzhou Chronicle", on the seventh day of the first month, there was also a woman's boat trip to Shimen Shenxiangpu. The yacht is decorated with frangipani flowers and jasmine flowers, called flower boats. They believe that this day is "Fairy Shower Day". The water quality of Shimenpu is clear, and the two mountains are reflected at sunrise and sunset, and sometimes some scenery appears in the sky like a mirage. Boat rafters Tan hope to have the luck to see the appearance of the odd one, so the girls Tanabata tour of Shimen Agarwood Pu has become an important content, very lively, and has become a festival custom.
Xiangqiao will
In Yixing, Jiangsu Province, there is the Qixi Xiangqiao Association. Every year on Tanabata, people come to participate and build an incense bridge. The so-called incense bridge is a bridge made of various thick and long wrapped incense sticks (incense wrapped in paper) that is four or five meters long and about half a meter wide, and is decorated with a railing and tied with five-colored threads on the railing. At night, people sacrifice double stars, beg for blessings, and then burn the incense bridge, symbolizing that the double stars have crossed the incense bridge and meet happily. This Xiangqiao bridge is derived from the legend of the legend of Queqiao.
Welcome
Guangzhou's beggar festival is unique, before the arrival of the festival, the girls will be prepared in advance with colored paper, grass, rope, etc., woven into a variety of kitsch play, but also put the grain seeds and mung beans into a small box soaked in water, so that it germinates, when the buds grow to more than two inches long, used to worship the gods, called "worship immortals" and "worship god dish". From the sixth night of the first month to the seventh night of the first month, two nights in a row, the girls put on new clothes, put on new jewelry, and after everything was arranged, they burned incense and lit candles, bowed to the starry sky, called "Yingxian", from three to five, to worship seven times in a row. After worshiping the immortals, the girls hold the colored thread in their hands to the light shadow to pass the thread through the pinhole, such as those who can wear seven pinholes in one breath are called qiao, called skillful hands, and those who cannot wear seven pinholes are called qiaoqiao. After Tanabata, the girls give each other small crafts and toys they make to show friendship.
Dye nails
Nail dyeing is a Tanabata custom in southwest China. Young girls in many areas like to wash their hair with the sap of the tree with water during the festival, which can not only be young and beautiful, but also for unmarried women, they can find Ruyi Langjun as soon as possible. Dyeing nails with flowers and plants is also a hobby for most women and children in holiday entertainment, and it is also closely related to fertility beliefs.
Listen to whispers
In some rural areas of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, there will be many young girls on the night of Qixi, secretly hiding under the lush pumpkin shed, and if you can hear the whispers of the cowherd and the weaver girl when they meet in the middle of the night, the girl to be married will be able to get the unshakable love for a thousand years in the future.
Knot red head rope
It is said that if there are frail and sick children in the family, parents often tie seven knots of red head rope on this day and wear them on the neck of the child, praying to the heavens to bless the child's health and longevity.
Women shampoo
Women Tanabata shampooing is also a special custom. This is recorded in Hunan, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. For example, in the Xiangtan area of Hunan Province, "Youxian Zhi": "On The seventh day of July, women picked cypress leaves and peach branches, and fried soup and mu hair. And the prose master Qi Jun (Zhejiang) 's "Bun" also mentions that his mother and uncle and other female relatives are all in Qixi Mufa. This custom is probably related to the belief in the "holy water" of Tanabata. It is believed that taking spring water and river water on the day of Tanabata is like taking milky way water, which has the divine power of purification. Some places directly call it "Tiansun (i.e., Weaver Girl) Holy Water". Therefore, women have a special meaning in bathing their hair on this day, which means that they can purify their hair with the holy water in the milky way and will be blessed by the goddess of weaving.
It is also popular to use a washbasin to receive dew. Legend has it that the dew during the Tanabata Festival is the tears of the cowherd weaver girl when they meet, and if smeared on the eyes and hands, it can make people's eyes bright and fast.
Ligature Qiaogu
In the Loess Plateau region of Shaanxi Province, on the night of the Qixi Festival, there are also the customs of holding various begging activities, women often have to tie straw people wearing flower clothes, called Qiaogu, not only to provide melons and fruits, but also to plant bean seedlings, green onions, on the night of the Qixi Festival, the women of each family carry a bowl of water, cut bean seedlings, green onions, put into the water, use the shadow of the moon to divinate the fate of cunning, but also wear needles and threads, competition. At the same time, the activity of cutting window flowers is more skillful than skillful.
Have fun
Mo Jiu Le is a children's plaything of the old Kaifeng folk Tanabata Festival, that is, a small clay doll, whose image is mostly a lotus leaf half-arm dress, holding a lotus leaf. Every year on July 7, in Kaifeng, "the tiles outside the East Song Gate of Panlou Street, the tiles outside the West LiangMen of Zhou, the outer doors of the North Gate, the South Suzaku Gate and the Mahang Street are all sold for grinding and drinking, and they are small plastic earth puppet ears".
Generations of development
Cowherd Weaver Girl (engraved paper) one
The earliest record of the customs of Tanabata in written materials is found in Ge Hong's "Miscellaneous Records of Xijing" in the Eastern Jin Dynasty: "Hancai women often wear seven needles on the seventh day of July in the cardigan building, and everyone is accustomed to it." During the Southern Liang Dynasty, Emperor Daizong wrote in the Jingchu Chronicle, "On the seventh day of July, it was the night of the morning glory weaver girl's party. On the eve of the night, the women of the family knotted colorful wisps, wore seven-hole needles, or used gold, silver and jade as needles, and Chen Ji feasted on wine and prodigy fruits in the court. If there is a cockroach on the subnet melon, it is thought that the symbol should be". It can be seen that during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the southern Tanabata begging ceremony was quite complicated, not only to worship the morning glory weaver girl two stars, the needle under the moon, but also to place melon fruits in the court, and the custom of judging whether it was "coincidental" according to the web of the spider has also been formed. In the Tang Dynasty, the palace even set up a special "beggar building" on the day of Qixi, where concubines and women begged in the moonlight with five-color threads piercing nine holes. In the poems of the Tang and Song Dynasties, women begging qiaoqiao is also mentioned repeatedly, and Wang Jianyou of the Tang Dynasty said in a poem that "the stars of the Tang Dynasty are embellished with pearls, and the Qixi Palace is busy with begging". According to the "Kaiyuan Tianbao Testament", Tang Taizong and his concubines feasted at the Qing Palace every Qixi, and the palace ladies begged each other, and this custom also endured in the folk and continued from generation to generation. The term "Qixi Festival" first appeared in the Song Dynasty, which was regulated by the Song government in time; in the existing historical books, the earliest appearance of the word "Qixi Festival" was the Northern Song Dynasty; before the Song Dynasty, this day was mostly called "July Seven", "Beggar Festival", "Qixi Festival"; the Song Dynasty positioned the Qixi Festival as a national statutory holiday, the festival entertainment and commercial atmosphere was prominent, and the festive atmosphere of the Qixi Festival reached its peak.
At the time of the Song and Yuan Dynasties, Qixi Begging was quite grand, and there was also a market in the capital that specialized in begging goods, which was called Qiqiao City in the world. Song Luoye and Jin Yingzhi's "Drunken Man's Talk" said: "Tanabata, Pan Louqian bought and sold beggars. From the first day of July, the carriages and horses were angry, and by the three days before the Tanabata, the carriages and horses were not passed, and they were suppressed one after another, and they did not come out again, and dispersed until night. "Here, from the grand situation of buying beggars in Beggar City, we can infer the lively scene of the Tanabata Beggars Festival at that time. People have been doing begging goods since the beginning of July, and the traffic in The city is full of traffic and the flow of people, and when it is close to Tanabata, the city has become a sea of people, and it is difficult for cars and horses to travel. It shows that the Tanabata Festival is one of the most favorite festivals of the ancients. In ancient times, Tanabata and the legend of the cowherd weaver girl is closely related, it is a comprehensive festival with women as the main body, on this day women will visit close friends in the boudoir, worship the weaver girl, compete with the female red, and pray for blessings, so Tanabata also has the title of "Daughter's Day". On the day when women are happy to compete and entertain, men also gather to enjoy it, and the love between men and women is only a by-product of the "Daughter's Day" event.
In the "Nineteen Ancient Poems" in the "Roundabout Morning Glory", morning glory and weaver girl are already a pair of lovers who admire each other, and have since undergone the "processing" of the generation of literati, and this passage of the heavenly legend has become more and more vivid. In the classic Huangmei opera "Tianxian Match", the ancients' imagination of the stars has been almost perfectly integrated with a folk farmer named Dong Yong into a love tragedy in the world, which is now known as the legend of the cowherd weaver girl. However, the ancients' understanding of Tanabata did not stop at this poignant love story; the seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, which was regarded by the ancients as a festival for women, was a day when girls begged for wisdom and dexterity from heaven. The love story of the cowherd weaver girl is integrated with the custom of begging, so every seventh day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, when the cowherd weaver girl "Queqiao Society", the girls will come to the flower before the moon, look up at the starry sky, look for the cowherd star and the vega star on both sides of the Milky Way, hoping to see their annual meeting, begging the heavens to let themselves be as skillful as the weaver girl, praying that they can also have a satisfactory marriage, and over time they have formed the Tanabata festival custom.
Festive food
The food customs of the Tanabata Festival vary from place to place, and are generally called eating smart food. A "qiao" character image tells the uniqueness of Tanabata food customs, and expresses people's good wishes for the pursuit of spiritual ingenuity, family well-being, and a happy life.
QiaoGuo introduced
Qiaoguo: Tanabata beggars the festival food, the most famous of which is Qiaoguo. Qiao guo is also called "beggar fruit", and there are many styles. "Beggar fruit" is a traditional offering and beauty point of the Tanabata Festival. On the evening of Tanabata, people bring "beggar fruit" to the courtyard, and the whole family sits around and tastes the craftsmanship of the people who make "qiaoguo". Now this custom has ceased to circulate in many places, and the traditional food of "beggar fruit" has evolved into a variety of colorful pastries. There are many styles of qiaoguo, and the main materials are oil, noodles, sugar and honey. In addition, there are many variations of the melon fruit used when begging: or the melon fruit is carved into a strange flower and bird, or the relief pattern on the surface of the melon skin; this melon fruit is called "flower melon".
Shortbread: In some places in China's pastry shops, this day also to make some weaver girl image of the crisp candy, commonly known as "qiaoren" "qiao", sold also known as "send qiaoren", folk believe that people who eat this "crisp candy" will become skillful.
Qiaoqiao rice: In Shandong, China, this day to eat Qiaoqiao rice, the custom of begging is very interesting: seven good girls collect grain and vegetables to wrap dumplings, wrap a copper coin, a needle and a red date into three dumplings, after the beggar activity, they get together to eat dumplings, legend has it that the blessed eaters of money, the skillfulness of eating needles, the early marriage of eating dates.
Melon fruit: In Fujian, during the Tanabata Festival, the weaver girl should be allowed to appreciate and taste the melon fruit, so as to ask her to bless the harvest of melon and fruit in the coming year. Offerings include tea, sake, fresh fruit, five seeds (cinnamon balls, dates, hazelnuts, peanuts, melon seeds), flowers and pollen for women's makeup. Usually, after fasting and bathing, everyone takes turns to burn incense at the offering table and pray silently.
Literary accounts
Poetry
Nineteen Ancient Poems: The Morning Glory
Roundabout Morning Glory Star, Kyaukgyao River Han Girl.
Fibrous hands, Zaza lane machine.
All day long, weeping like rain.
The river is clear and shallow, and it is a few times gone.
In the middle of the water, the pulse is silent.
"Xingxiangzi Tanabata" (Song) Li Qingzhao
The grass sings, the sycamore falls, and the earth and the sky are full of sorrow.
Clouds step up the moon, close the lock thousand weights.
The floating maple comes, the floating maple goes, and it does not meet.
Star Bridge Magpie Driving, after years to see, want to leave love, do not hate the poor.
Morning Glory Weaver Girl, Mo is out of the middle.
Even the sun is clear, the rain is shining, the wind is blowing.
"Poetry Sutra, Xiaoya Dadong"
There is Han in the heavens, and there is light in the prison. The weaver girl, seven times a day.
Although it is seven, it is not a newspaper. Look at the morning glory, do not serve the box.
"Autumn Sunset" (Tang) Du Mu
Silver candle autumn light cold painting screen, light luo small fan fluttering firefly.
The night is as cool as water, and you can sit and watch the morning glory Vega.
Qixi (Five Dynasties, Later Tang) Yang Pu
If you don't know what the morning glory is, you must invite the weaver girl to get the golden shuttle.
Begging every year is clever with the world, but there are many coincidences in the world.
"Tanabata" (Tang) Du Mu
The clouds and the moon have passed, and they have not been able to hate much over the years.
I hate the Ming Dynasty car wash rain the most, and do not teach the feet to cross the Tianhe River.
"Tanabata" (Tang) Quan Deyu
Today's Yun biao crossing the Queqiao Bridge should not be a vein and a loop.
The family actually likes to open the makeup mirror, and wear needles under the moon to worship nine nights.
"Qixi" (Tang) Xu Ning
A Queqiao bridge was faint, and a thousand jades were wearing Lingling.
There are also old-time guests, and the hope is not as good as the river drum star.
Queqiao Immortal (Song) Qin Guan
The clouds are clever, the flying stars are hateful, and the silver man is secretly crossing.
As soon as the golden wind and jade dew met, they won countless victories in the world.
Tenderness is like water, good times are like dreams, bear with Queqiao to return to the road!
If the two loves are long, how can they be in the twilight of the dynasty!
"Tanabata Drunken Answer Jundong" (Ming) Tang Xianzu
Yumingtang opened the spring Cuiping, and the new words sang "Peony Pavilion".
Sad to shoot all over no one will, self-pinch sandalwood traces to teach Xiao Ling.
"Hanzhuang Gate Boat Tanabata" (Qing) Yao Xie
Mulan paddle lotus flower township, sing the red evening cool.
Smoke outside the willow silk lake outside the water, mountain eyebrows blue moon eyebrow yellow.
ballad
One
Beggars are skillful, beggars are skillful; begging hearts are clear, begging faces;
Beg my father and mother for thousands of years; beg my sister for thousands of years.
Two
Emperor Di Huang, I invited the seventh sister to heaven.
Don't figure your needle, don't plot your line,
Optical your seventy-two good means.
Third
Sprouts, raw monsters. Pots and pans, hands covered.
On the seventh of July, it was taken off, and the sisters and sisters took pictures.
Like a flower, like a vegetable, see whose heart is fast.
Festive impact
Japan
Japan's "Tanabata Festival" originated in China and is said to have been introduced during the Nara period. Beginning in the middle of the Nara period, the Japanese court and high society imitated the Tang Palace, and tanabata festivals, needle begging, and tanabata poetry became popular. The customs and habits of "begging" are continued, but they have nothing to do with love. The Tanabata Festival was originally the seventh day of the seventh month of the seventh month of the lunar calendar, and after the Meiji Restoration, Japan abolished the lunar calendar, so the Tanabata Festival in Japan is the seventh day of the seventh month of the solar calendar every year.
The Japanese Tanabata Festival is not mainly used to pray for love, but to pray that girls can have a good craft. At this time of year, adults and children get together to write wishes and poems on colorful strips of poetry, which are hung on small bamboo in their yards along with ornaments made of paper. This custom began in the Edo period. On days approaching Tanabata, there will be Tanabata bamboo trees in many places, and Tanabata wishing trees will be set up in places where shops sell summer clothes and where supermarkets settle payments.
At some large-scale celebration ceremonies, bamboo ornaments (evolved from hanging wishing shorts) competitions will be held, and local kindergartens, elementary schools and other schools will organize or company to create their own bamboo ornaments, evaluate them, and select the most distinctive ones for display. In addition, the annual Tanabata Festival is held every summer in various parts of Japan, where people wear traditional costumes, sing and dance, taiko drums, and the streets and alleys of the "short book" are crowded with adults and children watching and playing. The Tanabata Festival is complemented by a fireworks display every summer.
Korean peninsula
The Korean writer Choi Nam-sun recorded in the "Common Sense of Korea" that Tanabata was originally a Chinese custom, and then spread to Korea, and King Gongyu (the 31st king of Goryeo) and the Mongolian queen worshiped morning glory (cow lang) and Vega star, and gave the feng lu to the hundred officials on that day.
The most representative custom of Korean Tanabata is to pray to Vega, hoping that she will have the same dexterous hands and weave fabrics as Vega. In the morning, the women put melons, cucumbers and other melons and fruits on the table and prostrated their heads to pray, so that the women's weaving skills were getting better and better. Another important matter of Tanabata in Korea is sacrifice, which can be divided into two types: family sacrifice and collective sacrifice. Korean women are required to put clean well water on the altar, and cowherd weavers are no longer the objects of worship, mainly to pray for the safety of relatives and friends. In some places, a field festival is held to pray for a good harvest.
The Tanabata diet in Korea is also exquisite, and the traditional foods include noodles, wheat pancakes, and steamed cakes.
Viet Nam
In Vietnam, the main celebration of Tanabata is Chinese, and Tanabata has a nickname - "Cow Bull Po Day". On this day, people go to the temple to make a wish. The tributes used by the Chinese in Ho Chi Minh City to worship Tanabata are mainly customs in southern China, mainly including: diamond horns, chess piece cakes, money cakes, peanuts, etc., as well as "He Yang" and a "Seven Sisters Plate", two tributes closely related to the legend of "Cow Lang Weaver Girl". The young people who participated in the activity also wrote their expectations for love on a note, making a wish during the worship, hoping that they would have a happy family in the future.
Note: Tanabata Festival introduction comes from today's headline encyclopedia!
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